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The National Science Foundation (NSF) today announced funding for four projects aimed at fostering world-class research through regional improvements to research infrastructure. Each of the projects represents a consortium of regional institutions that will receive up to $6 million over a three year period in Research Infrastructure Improvement (RII) Track-2 awards as part of NSF's Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR).

Together, these RII, Track-2 awards involve researchers from multiple institutions in 10 states and address important research challenges such as the health of coastal lands, sustainable and efficient water use and the development of novel bioprocessing technologies for alternative energy production.

"These RII awards enable diverse teams to leverage the expertise of their individual researchers and delve into solving challenges that have a direct impact on the economies of their regions," said Denise Barnes, head of NSF's EPSCoR program. "With NSF funding, these teams may also create and sustain a diverse STEM-enabled workforce in their regions that contribute to a brighter economic future for America as a whole."

A brief description of the projects as well as the lead principal investigator and institution for each of the four awards appear below.

The New England SusTainability Consortium (NEST) will utilize cutting-edge theories and methods from a range of disciplines including the emerging field of sustainability science to tackle problems related to the closure of shellfish beds and posting of beach advisories due to high levels of pathogenic bacteria in coastal regions. With the value of coastal recreation estimated at some $20 billion nationally and $400 million in Maine and New Hampshire, coastal closures represent a significant sustainability problem with complex and interacting economic, social and environmental dimensions. As long-term trends indicate worsening coastal pollution, this research will inform choices and provide a promising model for interactions between science and decision-making.

NEST will mobilize the collective capacity of New England universities and colleges in order to strengthen the connections between science and decision-making. Beginning with Maine and New Hampshire, the team will use the Gulf of Maine as a laboratory to investigate interactions between coupled natural and human systems

The mechanisms responsible for observed and projected changes affecting water resources in high-elevations are poorly understood, especially with respect to snow, surface and groundwater linkages, and interactions with vegetation. Idaho, Nevada, and New Mexico will create a Western Consortium for Watershed Analysis, Visualization, and Exploration (WC-WAVE) whose overarching goal is to advance watershed science, workforce development and education with cyber-infrastructure (CI)-enabled discovery and innovation.

WC-WAVE CI will enable researchers to create better models to understand the processes that govern a large proportion of water and ecosystem services to communities. These systems are affected by climate change, which impacts the water storage, flow moderation and water quality improvement. Interactions among precipitation, vegetation growth, fire regime, soil moisture, runoff and other landscape properties create systems in which even subtle changes in climate may lead to significant environmental and economic impacts.

The Dakota Bioprocessing Consortium (DakotaBioCon) brings together researchers from two neighboring states, North Dakota and South Dakota, to develop sustainable resources based on biomass processing. Bioprocessing of renewable resources addresses strategic national security priorities by reducing national dependence on imported oil and creating new jobs.

Through research and development, DakotaBioCon plans to become a recognized intellectual leader in biomass bioprocessing that can help regional, national and global societies transition to a bio-based economy. DakotaBioCon will facilitate the development of novel bioprocessing technologies for the sustainable production of high-value chemicals and materials from renewable resources. They will have a special emphasis on products derived from crops as economically viable substitutes of imported petroleum based chemicals.

Collaborative research in Vermont, Delaware, and Rhode Island will address and integrate two grand challenges in environmental science and management: the complex interactions among land use, water quality and aquatic ecosystems; and how this knowledge can be used by managers and policy makers to inform decisions about resource management. The research will involve the placement of an extensive network of environmental sensors in key areas in each state. These sensors will yield information about the export of carbon and nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus from the watershed over time, including periods of high or low water flow associated with the storms and droughts that are predicted to become more frequent as climate changes.

At the same time, the researchers will conduct a series of laboratory and field experiments and agent-based modeling to determine how stakeholders will accept and use the data collected by the sensor network. The overarching goal is to assist stakeholders in their policy-making by linking the results of experimental economics analysis of environmental data to environmental governance and market mechanisms designed to sustain and improve water quality and quantity.

About EPSCoR

EPSCoR is a program designed to fulfill NSF's mandate to promote scientific progress nationwide. Twenty-eight states, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Guam are currently eligible to participate. Through this program, NSF establishes regional partnerships with government, higher education and industry that effect lasting improvements in a state's or territory's research infrastructure and research and development capacity, and hence, its academic competitiveness.

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A project coordinator and volunteer scientists mount and calibrate aquatic sensors in New Hampshire.Credit and Larger Version

The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent federal agency that supports fundamental research and education across all fields of science and engineering. In fiscal year (FY) 2017, its budget is $7.5 billion. NSF funds reach all 50 states through grants to nearly 2,000 colleges, universities and other institutions. Each year, NSF receives more than 48,000 competitive proposals for funding and makes about 12,000 new funding awards.